Low-power communication devices like sensors have been applied in a wide range of sensing and monitoring applications. However, sustainable monitoring service is hindered due to the requirement of frequent replacement of depleted batteries. Fortunately, with advancement of low-power electronics, continuously reduced power requirement of a single node brings self-powered or ‘perpetually powered’ systems from concept to practice. Energy harvesting techniques convert available ambient energy into electricity. Wind energy is a potential power source which is ubiquitous in both indoor and outdoor environments. By pursuing aeroelastic instabilities, the wind-induced vibration energy can be converted to electricity via different transduction mechanisms. The focus here is to develop advanced techniques for small-scale wind energy harvesting with piezoelectric transduction. The recent progresses in small-scale wind energy harvesting research will be discussed, including the design of novel wind power harvesting structures based on aeroelasticities, the development of aero-electro-mechanically coupled system models and derivation and analytical solutions for system responses, and the efficiency enhancement through two aspects: structural modifcation and interface circuit improvement.

报告人简介：

Dr Liya Zhao is currently a Lecturer in the School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney. She received her BEng in Civil Engineering from Tongji University in 2009, and her PhD in structures and mechanics from Nanyang Technological University Singapore in Dec 2015. After that, she worked as a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University Singapore. She joined the University of Technology Sydney as a Lecturer In Oct 2017. Her main research interests include energy harvesting, smart materials and structures, wind energy, structural dynamics, aeroelasticity, aero-electro-mechanical coupling, power electronics and piezoelectric devices.